THE MANY OF DAN WILL BE AT ANAP.

Arabs agree to attend talks in Annapolis By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer NOV 23,07

CAIRO, Egypt - Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations grudgingly agreed Friday to attend next week's U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference, despite failing to get any guarantee of Israeli concessions. In a sign of the skepticism, even among close U.S. allies, the Saudi foreign minister cautioned that there would be no public handshakes with Israeli officials at the gathering Tuesday in Annapolis, Md.Still, the Arab League's decision to participate marked a success for the United States, which had pushed hard for regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia to attend the conference.It was unclear whether another key player, Syria, would show up, even though it was part of the Arab League's collective decision to participate.Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said his government was waiting to see if the agenda addressed its priority issue — the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. U.S. officials have said Syria would be free to raise any issue it wants.

The meeting will include discussions on a comprehensive Arab-Israel peace deal. But it is mainly intended to launch Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations after a lull of seven years, and Washington had pushed for a strong Arab presence to show support.
Arab leaders made clear they were on board in part to ensure that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas does not make any damaging concessions to Israel in any negotiations on a final peace deal. Israel has dangled the possibility of an accord as early as the end of 2008.Asked if Abbas has a free rein to negotiate a deal, Arab League chief Amr Moussa underlined that Arab countries would not back an agreement deal that did not meet an Arab peace plan calling for a return of all lands Israel seized in the 1967 war.I repeat again and again that we are governed by the Arab initiative in all behaviors and ... and in our agreement to end the Arab-Israeli conflict, he told reporters after the foreign ministers of the league's member states decided to go to Annapolis.Arab countries — particularly Saudi Arabia, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel — have worried that the conference would corner them into a high-profile meeting with Israel without securing any commitments about the future shape of a peace deal.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said that while he was going to Annapolis, he would not join in any Arab-Israeli handshakes like those stage-managed by U.S. officials at past conferences, such as the one between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat in 1993.

We are not prepared to take part in a theatrical show, in handshakes and meetings that don't express political positions. We are going with seriousness and we work on the same seriousness and credibility,he said after the meeting.I'm not hiding any secret about the Saudi position. We were reluctant until today. And if not for the Arab consensus we felt today, we would not have decided to go, he said.Saudi Arabia wants the conference to produce a promise that negotiations will tackle the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — the borders of an independent Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees. It also seeks a timetable for talks, a mechanism to ensure progress and a commitment to the Arab peace plan.But the Arabs were unable to get any such promises on paper.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said this week that negotiations would address the core issues and that a deal could be reached in 2008. But Israel opposes a formal timetable or a specific mention of the major issues in a joint declaration expected to be issued at Annapolis.Still, al-Faisal said the Arabs were attending because they saw a real chance for peace. For the first time, we felt real seriousness (from Israel) — not out of good intentions but of out of real public opinion that they want real peace in the region, he said.The United States had pressured the kingdom heavily to send al-Faisal, rather than a lower-level figure, with President Bush speaking by phone with Saudi King Abdullah earlier this week. The U.S. already had won Egypt's endorsement of the conference, securing its help in bringing Saudi involvement.

Israel welcomed the news that al-Faisal would attend, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev calling it a positive development. We hope this is only the beginning and that we will see greater and broader Arab involvement in the peace process, he said. For this process to succeed, both Arabs and Israelis will have to take bold steps.Saudi Arabia, as well as Syria, attended the 1991 Madrid peace conference that brought together Israel and Arab countries. But the kingdom and other Arab nations have been cautious over any steps that would be seen as normalization with Israel before it returns Arab lands. After intense discussions late Thursday and Friday, Arab League members agreed the meeting should be attended by a committee set up earlier this year to deal with the peace process — Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.
Despite the collective decision to participate, Syria's foreign minister was keeping Washington guessing about whether he would show up. We haven't made a decision to participate until we receive the agenda of the conference and read it to find an item addressing the Syrian-Israeli track, meaning the occupied Golan Heights, al-Moallem told reporters. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said there would be room at Annapolis to discuss the Golan Heights. Asked about Syria, Moussa said final arrangements had to be made. He said the Arab foreign ministers would meet again in Washington on Monday, a day before the Annapolis conference. Associated Press writer Maggie Michael contributed to this report.

Devout Muslims and Jews mull dividing Jerusalem By Rebecca Harrison NOV 23,07

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - From opposite sides of the wall that once divided Jerusalem, Israeli Shlomo Yirmiyahu and Palestinian Yakoob Arrajabi watched in 1967 as the Jewish state seized the Arab east of the city in a blaze of gunfire. Now, as their leaders prepare for talks about peace, the two devoutly religious men are trying to imagine the future of their home town, which stands at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is treasured as holy by both.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state but splitting the city is a highly divisive issue for Israelis. As a Palestinian who yearns for independence, Arrajabi has much to gain from a compromise.

All Palestine is sacred to us and Jerusalem is the most precious, said the bearded 48-year-old. But the desire of man is one thing and reality is another.Arrajabi lives just off Jerusalem's Route 1 artery which runs north from the Old City along the Green Line that once separated Israel from the Jordanian-controlled West Bank and now informally divides Jerusalem's Arab and Jewish neighborhoods.A few blocks south, 69-year-old Yirmiyahu -- a portly man -- has for decades lived on the other side of that line, comfortable in his belief that Israel -- and all Jerusalem -- belong to the Jews.On Fridays at sunset, Yirmiyahu joins hundreds of fellow Jews, many of them Orthodox in black hats, walking down Route 1, through the cobbled streets of the Old City's Muslim quarter, to pray at the Western Wall -- one of Judaism's most sacred sites.The bible says this is the Promised Land for Jews. It's like we say 'next year in Jerusalem, Yirmiyahu said, quoting the traditional saying in Jewish ritual which expresses the diaspora dream of return to the holy land.

A GRUDGING PEACE?

Arrajabi and hundreds of Muslims also pray in the Old City on Fridays. They head for al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site, which lies adjacent to the Western Wall and occupies one the most disputed spots of real estate on earth.With the slender turret of a mosque in the skyline behind him, Yirmiyahu grudgingly concedes that sharing control of his beloved Jerusalem with the Arabs he long viewed as foes might make good sense as part of a deal to secure peace.If America and Abu Mazen and all his people would promise to stop harassing the Jews ... then it would be good for Israel and the Arabs, he said, calling Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by his familiar name.Yirmiyahu is more flexible than most of his neighbors, some of whom said they were praying fervently that next week's U.S.-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland would fail and talk of a Palestinian state evaporate with it.Up the road, Arrajabi is also counting on divine intervention --but of a different kind.Do I expect to see a Palestinian state in my lifetime? Really, I hope, he said. But I don't expect the conference to start anything new, even though I pray to God for that.(Additional reporting by Lianne Gross and Labib Nassir; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Syria says US agrees to put Golan on Mideast agenda Fri Nov 23,07

DAMASCUS (AFP) - The United States has agreed to put the question of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel from Syria, on the agenda of next week's Middle East peace meeting, Syria's foreign minister said on Friday. The American administration confirmed inclusion of the Syrian-Israeli issue -- the Golan -- in the Annapolis meeting, Walid Muallem was quoted by the official SANA news agency as saying.He added that Syria would decide whether it would attend the meeting in the city near Washington after receiving an official copy of the agenda.In Washington, a State Department statement said all parties attending the conference could raise their national interests without explicitly agreeing to Syria's push to put the Golan Heights on the agenda.All attendees are entitled to express their views and national interests as they see them, spokesman Karl Duckworth told AFP.The United States came under increasing pressure to allow Syria to raise the issue of the Golan, captured by Israeli in the 1968 Middle East war and later annexed, after Arab foreign ministers put their weight behind the request following a meeting in Cairo.Syria has been invited to the November 27 conference, aimed at reviving the long-dormant Middle East peace process, despite strained relations between Washington and Damascus.